Sometimes the hunter can be perfect and the guide just sucks. Such was the case last night. Len and I went hunting at the invite of Mark. Put Len and his son on a clover field. Threw me out of a truck moving 50 mph. He called it the "RAT PATROL" ride. I was sitting in the back ricochetting off the cab, bed, side walls, tail gate etc. When we arrived at my drop off point it was easy to find all my stuff.... it was all twisted up in one big ball. Pull on one piece and the rest all rolled out with it. I walked a trail looking for sign but didn't find what I wanted. Walked up along a field and fought my way through one of those bugger places that Mark said is so thick snakes go around it. Found a couple trails intersecting and paralleling the field. Got settled in, right at dark a deer comes down out of this snarl.. too far to shoot. Slipped out to the edge of the field when it got dark in the thicket to do some scouting. Got there just in time to see 3 pop out about 75-80 yards away. Got dark and walked out.

The problem was... we had the cameras warmed up for a mass photo shoot. We almost filled out a few tags before we went hunting we were so confident. A few deer were seen but none were shot. It's the guide I tell ya'.... we know it can't be the great white hunter. Had fun, great place, long ride... got home at 10:45... will be back.

That rat patrol ride sounds like fun. Maybe you could market it to six flags. As for the hunt, you know what they say. If you want something done right......

Well that is just a shame, where are you guys hunting so early in the season?

LOL, the Rat Patrol ride reminds me of how some of us used to 'bowhunt' coyotes. Try bouncing around with a recurve and a quiver of broadheads in the back of a pickup barreling off across a pasture and, at the same time, trying to draw down on the coyote your driver is chasing.

Needless to say, I was MUCH younger when we were doing that.[&:]

I found the secret to Rat Patrol riding safety. Start up near the cab if you're sitting in the back. As long as he keeps it below 70 when hitting the bumps... you'll always land before reaching the tailgate. "USUALLY" there's enough time to claw your way back to the front of the bed before he hits the next crater.

We were running a little late... he slowed it down on the way back to the barn. I'm not sure if he was being nice or his night vision was screwed up.[8D][&:]

Man...you must have a set of basketballs to do the rat patrol ride!

Hey... I didn't volunteer for this stuff. He said, "throw your stuff in the back and I'll drop you off at a spot". He did let me get seated before I found out he has 2 speed.... "Too FAST" and "BLUR".

Kidding aside. He was a gracious host and really is a hoot.

Who's Mark?

My only question is.. who's deer season is currently in season?

Mark is Mlaubner. No deer season is in season. We're just a bunch of outlaws that the rules don't apply to.[8D]

Seriously, we're hunting on crop damage permits. It's a case of too many deer doing to much damage. As soon as the crops are up they allow us to start hunting. They give you X amount of permits based on damage assessment. Maryland has several zones that there is no doe limit..... shoot all you want. This just allows us to have a longer season. It's does only. We can use any weapon that's legal during the regular seasons. We just chose to do it with bows. If we get near the end and haven't filled all the tags we can always switch to fire sticks, although Len and I haven't had to do this in 3 years of crop damage permits.